―345―

On the Use of MAIZE.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

Sir,

I HAVE been much amused with
your abstract from Rumford's
essays, and particularly with his
speculations on the uses of Indian
corn or maize. Many conclusions
of the highest importance to the
welfare of mankind, are suggested
by the facts which are stated by him;
but in proportion as these conclu-
sions are extensive and important, it
behoves us to be careful that the facts
from which they are deduced are
ascertained.

Whether man may healthfully
subsist upon Indian corn alone, and
what portions are necessary to his
daily subsistence, are questions to
be decided only by experiment. To

―346―

try the experiment in our own per-
son, is certainly the safest method;
but to do this effectually would re-
quire a degree of self denial which
few of us are able to practise.
Count Rumford seems to think that
this experiment was tried by him-
self, and proceeds to build conclu-
sions on the facts which I am afraid
are hardly sufficient to sustain them.

His experiment consisted in din-
ing once on a given quantity of has-
ty-pudding. The usual interval be-
tween this dinner and his breakfast
next morning, was spent, without
any sense of debility, or extraordi-
nary craving. Hence he infers that
hasty-pudding might usefully con-
stitute our only food, and especial-
ly the food of the poor.

On this case, however, several
observations are to be made. In
the first place, the effects of a single
meal afford no proof of what we
must expect from an invariable con-
tinuance of the same food. It would
be quite as reasonable to infer, that
food itself is unnecessary, since
many men have fasted one, two,
and three days, without apparent
diminution of their vigour. Almost
every man has lost a meal and a
night's sleep, without sensible in-
crease of appetite or drowsiness.
The influence of food, like that of
abstinence, is far from being always
sudden or speedy. A change of
diet and employment will frequent-
ly occasion a temporary buoyancy
and exhileration, though its ulti-
mate and gradual effect is to under-
mine the strength and shorten life.
A sense of fulness and vigour will
often flow from the use of a liquid
which stimulates without nourish-
ing. This is eminently true with
respect to coffee, which, it seems,
composed the Count's breakfast,
and which alone will sustain the
strength of those who are accustom-
ed to it, for twelve or eighteen
hours.

This experiment was, in another

view, extremely delusive; for, had
the effects of dining upon hasty-
pudding been lassitude and craving
till a new meal, the insufficiency
of this kind of food would not
thence follow. This is, on most
occasions, the effect of withdraw-
ing a stimulus to which we have
been accustomed, though that stimu-
lus is, generally and in itself, super-
fluous or pernicious. It is only by
persisting for weeks or months in
the use of the same diet, that either
its good or bad tendency can be
fully verified. Habit has tritely,
though cogently, been termed a se-
cond nature, and must be gradually
broken and subdued. The consti-
tution does not instantly embrace a
new law, and accommodate itself
to a new regimen; and, as habit
will frequently disarm the most
poisonous material of its hurtful
property when enlisted on its side,
so the most wholesome aliment will
be purely mischievous when un-
supported by a league with habit.
A man accustomed to inflamma-
tory wines and condiments, to
roast beef, mustard, and brown-stout,
might naturally be expected to com-
plain of languor and faintness, on
changing his regimen to milk, fruits,
or hasty-pudding. This change
might, indeed, operate to his de-
struction, and yet be far from fur-
nishing a proof that milk, fruits,
and bread are poisonous or insuf-
ficient. If the change should prove
ultimately beneficial, the benefit
would be experienced by degrees
and slowly. Healthful and benign
feelings would be preceded by ina-
nition, fits of lassitude, and, perhaps,
by actual disease.

Opium and spirits, and tobacco,
will become in like manner neces-
sary to the constitution, and the
disuse of them, in certain cases, will
produce disease and death.

There is likewise another consi-
deration proper to be mentioned.
What is sufficient for the subsist-

―347―

ence of a man of one size, and one
set of habits and employments, may
not answer the exigences of another.
The man of slender frame, quiet
thoughts, and intellectual industry,
may be expected to require fewer
supplies than the robust and labori-
ous classes of mankind. Count
Rumford, all whose feelings are
probably benign, and his exertions
uniform, mental, and placid, would
probably have appetites less keen,
and a stomach less capacious than
those of the carrier of burthens and
the driver of plows. The latter
might deem very slender and scanty
fare what would amply satisfy the
former. In every view, therefore,
the experiment of this philosopher
is insufficient to establish the con-
clusions for the sake of which it was
made.

It is evident that the only illus-
trations of this truth must be gained
from the practice of large numbers
of mankind. Is there any labori-
ous class of people whose subsist-
ence is totally derived from maize?
If there be such, in what propor-
tions do they use it, and what is the
apparent influence of this food on
their constitution?

Maize is used by the natives of
Africa, and by the peasants of Italy
and Switzerland. Of many of these
it probably constitutes the only
bread; but none of them are wholly
limited to maize, as food. It is al-
ways mixed with meat, or milk, or
fruit, or oil, cheese, or wine, or it
is used alternately with these.
There are, probably, thousands of
Savoyards and Tyrolese, whose
meals have been composed of no-
thing but cheese, milk, rye bread,
and pollenta. That these ingredi-
ents are sufficient to sustain, invi-
gorate, and prolong our existence,
there is no room to doubt; but whe-
ther bread alone, and bread made
of maize, be sufficient for these ends,
must be proved by other examples

—Perhaps such examples may be
found in our native country.

It is well known that the staple
production of North-Carolina, is
maize or Indian corn. In some of
the counties, as Chowan, Bertie,
and Tyrrel, it occupies a larger
share of the soil than in the others,
but, in all, it is the chief product:
and what is particularly to our pre-
sent purpose, in all, it constitutes
the bread of the slaves.

Slaves are every where treated
with different degrees of severity.
This severity principally consists
in limiting the kinds and quantity
of food. In this respect, as in all
others, there is a mean, which there
are a few who rise beyond, many
who fall below. Maize is every
where considered as the gross and
regular subsistence of the negroes.
Other vegetable products are spar-
ingly or seldom added to their meal;
and pork, or fish, or salt, is given,
more to add a relish to their hoe-cake,
than as an indispensible portion of
their sustenance.

It is natural to suppose that the
experiment which our philosopher
has tried in so small a scale, would
be frequently repeated by the avarice
of slave-holders, on a larger one;
and that we should find, on some
Carolinian plantation, complete
proof of the extent to which sim-
plicity and abstemiousness in eating,
may be carried. On making suit-
able inquiries, I have found that
the mere use of Indian corn, some-
times occurs, but rarely; and that
a land-holder is accounted barba-
rous and cruel beyond the custom-
ary degree, who confines his ne-
groes to maize alone.

The most lenient and indulgent
treatment consists in allowing each
negroe, in addition to his maize,
which, in this case, is ground and
baked by slaves allotted for the pur-
pose, as many salted herrings as he
can eat, and twice or thrice a week

―348―

he is allowed to banquet upon
pickled pork. A man, the limits
of whose appetite are not prescrib-
ed by his master, will eat three
herrings, each weighing four ounces,
at a meal. He makes two meals per
day. His meat therefore amounts,
daily, to 1½ lbs. He has likewise
a rood or two of land, round his hut,
which he may cultivate on Sundays
and holidays, in what manner he
pleases. In this garden he raises
potatoes, pease, beans, and the like,
which greatly heighten and diversi-
fy his banquets, or which he ex-
changes for spirits, molasses, dain-
ties, or cloathing. He will like-
wise raise a fowl or two, and will,
sometimes, in conjunction with his
fellow servants, perhaps, make out
to rear an hog; which his mas-
ter will give him the necessary
means of pickling. In some cases,
tasks are prescribed to the slave,
which his industry may dispatch so
as to gain a day or two in the week,
to be employed for his own advant-
age.

This is the utmost limit of in-
dulgence. The opposite extreme
of rigour consists in abridging the
negro of all leisure but that of Sun-
days and a few days at Christmas,
and of dispensing, weekly, to each
slave, eight quarts of maize, in the
grain. They are driven to the field
on Monday morning, and continue
there, day and night, till Saturday
evening. Besides their appointed
tasks, they are to grind their corn,
and prepare the meal, with water
brought from a neighbouring spring,
and at a fire kindled on the spot.
They are utter strangers to flesh or
fish, to every kind of condiment,
even to salt. Their food is, abso-
lutely and simply, Indian meal
mingled with water. This is spread
upon a board, and placed before
the fire. The hoe, the usual in-
strument of their labour, has some
times been made their instrument
of cookery, whence has arisen the

term hoe-cake; but, in cases of
extreme hardship, this office must
be performed by a board, the hoe
being in constant use till the mo-
ment of beginning their repast.

This description is by no means
exaggerated. On the fertile banks
of Roanoke, there are farmers who
cultivate five hundred acres, and
this is performed by eighty or one
hundred slaves. The treatment of
these slaves is far from being gene-
rally rigorous; but, nevertheless,
there are some instances of barba-
rous severity. Every one acquaint-
ed with the country, will recollect
more than one planter, who pos-
sesses between two and three hun-
dred slaves, and whose provision is
simply, and absolutely, and invari-
ably, one peck or eight quarts of
unground maize per week. This
is ground, sifted, and eaten by the
same persons, and is unaccompa-
nied by flesh or fish, by molasses,
sugar, and even by salt. This,
therefore, may be considered as a
complete instance of the exclusive
use of maize.

In estimating the influence of this
diet, we may be led, by attendant
circumstances, into some errors.
The rigour that is exercised with
regard to food, extends to every
other particular; to their dwelling,
cloathing, tasks, and especially to
punishments. These unhappy be-
ings usually appear half naked, ema-
ciated, and dejected. They form
a melancholy contrast to the plump,
spirited, and laughing figures, whom
their good fortune has placed under
a more lenient government. How
much of this emaciation and dejec-
tion is to be imputed to the kind or
quantity of their provision, it is
difficult to ascertain.

I have described the limits of in-
dulgence on the one hand, and of
rigour on the other. There are,
of course, numerous intermediate
degrees. One of these degrees con-
sists in dispensing, weekly, a fixed,

―349―

though limited provision. Her-
rings constitute, always, a part of
this provision; but the grain is ne-
ver less than eight quarts a week.
Hence it should appear that eight
quarts, without any additional in-
gredient, are insufficient for whole-
some subsistence.

Admitting, however, that with
moderate tasks, with all the bene-
fits of cookery, with comfortable
cloathing and shelter, with inter-
vals of leisure and amusement, eight
quarts per week should be deemed
sufficient, let us see what will be
the amount of daily provision, and
compare it with the experiments of
Count Rumford.

           

	lbs.	oz.
A bushel of maize (in grain) will weigh	61	0
And produces, of meal,	45	0
A peck, or fourth of a bush- el, will, therefore, pro- duce, of meal,	11	4
This divided into seven por- tions, is, per day,	1	6
This will make, of hasty- pudding,	4	8

Count Rumford informs us that
he dined upon 1 lb. 1½ oz. of this
pudding, so that the negro's daily
portion of corn, would afford, if
made into hasty-pudding, more than
four meals equivalent to our au-
thor's dinner; a quantity, which,
according to this estimate, ought
amply to supply the daily wants of
a single person.

It is not to be forgotten, how-
ever, that water, properly com-
bined with other substances, has
been proved to be eminently nu-
tricious; and that hasty-pudding has
a larger proportion of water than
can be produced by any other mode
of preparation. The negro is com-
pelled to turn his meal into dough,
and to bake it, without permitting
fermentation, and as soon as it is
made. By this mode, the benefits
of cookery are almost wholly lost.
Suppose, however, that the hoe-

cake retains as much air and mois-
ture as well fermented bread. Meal,
by fermentation and baking, is sup-
posed to gain one third of its weight,
so that 1 lb. 6 oz. of meal, will pro-
duce, of hoe-cake, 1 lb. 13 oz.
which is but two ounces more than
the product in hasty-pudding, of
half a pound of meal. Hence it
follows, that though the negroe
may famish and die upon his daily
allowance made into hoe-cake, the
same portion made into hasty-pud-
ding, might constitute an ample
supply for two days. Hence we
may infer the great importance of
cookery.

These facts respecting the negro
method of subsistence, may be
deemed indisputably authentic.
These, added to the facts stated by
our author, will suggest many im-
portant conclusions.

In the first place, it is remarkable
that the avarice of the Roanoke
planter might be gratified without
injury to his slaves, merely by a
different and not more expensive
preparation of their food.

These facts may likewise be made
the basis of various calculations as
to the productiveness of landed
property, the benefits of predial
slavery, and the possible bounds of
population, the quantity of culti-
vable ground, and the degree of its
fertility, being given.

Population, beyond most sub-
jects, is involved in perplexity.
Our ideas respecting its actual and
possible state in any country are
vague and indeterminate, in conse-
quence of wanting a proper basis
for our computations. This basis
would, in some degree, be sup-
plied by accurate conceptions of
the capacity of certain products to
sustain the life of man, and of the
capacity of ground to produce these
products.

There is found to be considera-
ble difference in both respects.
Soils, equal in fertility, will pro-

―350―

duce different quantities of different
products. It will produce, for in-
stance, more potatoes than maize,
more rice than potatoes, more bread-
fruit than rice, and more of sago
than either. According to the plant
which we cultivate, will therefore
be the quantity of sustenance, and
the possible limits of population.

Ground, consisting wholly of si-
liceous, calcarious, or argilaceous
matter is wholly barren. It is fer-
tile, on the contrary, in proportion
as mould or vegetable earth pre-
dominates over the former sub-
stances. Ground, in our southern
states, sometimes refuses to the cul-
tivator, one bushel in the acre. The
utmost degree of fertility, joined
with the greatest care in the tiller,
will scarcely produce seventy-five
bushels. The most usual degrees
of productiveness, are between fif-
teen and forty-five.

If one fourth be added to the
portion allowed, according to the
above statements, to the cultivators
of the soil, and which must be grant-
ed to be sufficient for healthful sus-
tenance, an acre producing fifteen
bushels, will maintain a man, and
one producing forty-five, will main-
tain three men. The medium,
therefore, is thirty bushels, which
may be fixed as the average fertility
of cultivable ground, when devoted
to maize, in any part of the tem-
perate and torrid zones.

The possible population of a coun-
try may hence be inferred, having
ascertained first the proportion of
cultivable ground, and, secondly,
the proportion of cultivable soil, to
be employed in raising maize. If the
numbers of any country be given,
we may likewise hence compute the
proportion of cultivable ground in
the country necessary to their sub-
sistence, provided that ground were
devoted to maize, and provided,
likewise, the maize were prepared
in the most judicious manner for
food.

Philo-Rumford.